I've been trying all week. Is it this hard everywhere in Canada to find one that is accepting new patients?

Not here. We signed up with Mrs AX's most excellent lady GP in a trice. Mind you I suspect the fact that technically she never left the patient list during her 5 years in the UK helped! Just to make you feel worse, Dentists, Physio's and decent Opticians were similarly simple to find!

I've never tried looking for a GP, why not just take your ailment to a walk-in clinic (or a roll in, if necessary).

In some areas it is not difficult, it is impossible.

Thanks. That makes me feel much better. Git.

I already knew that Gatineau had a poor reputation for healthcare provision (its main hospital is widely regarded as the most piss-poor in Quebec). I just didn't know it was that bad.

That was the first thing I did, on Monday. I went to the CLSC, which is meant to be the main centre for healthcare. It, erm, doesn't have any doctors. The helpful receptionist gave me the numbers for some doctors that might be taking new patients. They are not.

Tuesday, I went to a major walk-in clinic in Ottawa, well-aware of the fact that I was going to have to pay. On being told that I was looking at a five hour wait, I gave up and went home because it was going to be a waste of time. If you need your BP and pulse tested, the results are a foregone conclusion when you've been sat in a waiting room for hours.

I am seriously considering going down south.

Hope it's easier than trying to find an NHS dentist in the UK

We can't get registered with a GP here in New Glasgow. Have used the walk-in clinic which was great. Only thing is that it only operates from 5pm-9pm weekdays and 9am-1pm Saturday and Public Holidays. Doctors don't appear to do emergency call-outs like they do in the UK.

I think a lot of people use the emergency room at the local hospital at other times.

Speaking of dentists, I have found it easy to get a dentist here. Much cheaper than in the UK although we are on a health plan @ $40 every 2 weeks for family cover (Dr/Dentist/Eye Doc etc). The plan pays up to 80%, exceptions being certain dental work like crowns which are covered 50-60%. I went to the dentist yesterday and was in the chair for 1 hour having some work done by the hygenist and my bill came to $16. Full check-up and 5 x-rays came to $19.

Kids over the age of 10 pay for dental work here in NS.

Talk to people you know, the best way in is a personal contact, friend of a friend thing.

Belleville has a good recruiting program (features in the national news recently), and still has major shortages, one of the urgent care walk ins closed recently as they could not get doctors.

We got our first (useless) doctor through knowing one of his patients, who put in a good word for us. We stopped using him as he was about as much use as tits on a bull, and used the walk ins and emerg for a while, and then we signed up on the waiting list for the new health center in trenton and were lucky enough to be one of the one in three applicants to be assigned a doctor.


Surely there is an urgent care / walk in clinic with doctors somewhere relatively local on the Quebec side of the border? Waiting is inevitable though I'm afraid, either for treatment, or for a GP. Even when you have a doctor there is no guarantee they are any good, but hopefully ours was a one off...Hes just totally dropped the ball again with a friend at work who has our ex doctor as her GP. Good Luck.

I've just got one, and I didn't even want one. A colleague of Mr B's has rustled up a GP for us, so we feel obliged to sign on. I'd really rather go to a local walk-in if need be, especially after the palavour with Jr in Winnipeg - I thought at the least GPs had a duty of care to see their registered patients within a certain timeframe, but apparently not.

I've only found one. Urgent cases only. I'm not. I simply need a medical.

I may become an urgent case soon though, if this goes on.

I joked last night with Souvette that I should join the army because then I'd be assured of a medical. It wasn't nice what she said in reply.

We were v lucky, happened to find a very nice Egyptian lady doctor who had spent the time and effort to have her qualifications accepted here... her husband's a pharmacist who owns & runs a drugstore, they managed to buy the unit next door when she finally qualified and open that as a doctor's office (convenient for patients and a nice revenue stream for them - not, of course, that you have to go next door for your prescription but it seems almost churlish not to...)

We read about her trials and tribulations in the local paper the week we arrived and hot-footed it to the office to register. I think she looked sympathetically on our pleas as OH was 7 months pregnant at the time and getting quite stressed over all the stories of shortages.

Not that this helps you much, Souv, but thought it worth mentioning - if only because the fact that her human-interest, perseverance-in-the-face-of-officialdom story made local news kind of illustrates why there's a shortage of family doctors in the first place.

Hi Yes-can-do,

Do you mind me asking what insurance company you are with for your dental/eye etc, I'm moving to Kanata in two weeks and will need coverage.

Many thanks, Chris

I had no trouble whatsoever getting a GP in Oakville (at the medical centre on the east end of the Lakeshore shopping strip). It didn't take long to find out why it was so easy to get on his list. I soon gave up on him and started using the walk-in behind Loblaws on Rebecca. Wonderful Croatian dentist next door, BTW.